Resurgence of Banditry and Insecurity in Nigeria: Way Forward

Abstract

Nigeria is experiencing frequent violent conflicts in almost every part of the country. The country’s security crises include ethno-religious violence, especially in the northern parts of the country, farmers-herders clashes across the northcentral, the southwest and the southeast, climate of violence and social unrest occasioned by secessionist agitation in the southeast, armed banditry and cattle rustling in the northwest, continuous Boko Haram and Ansaru insurgence and massive killings in the northeast, and continuous kidnapping and ransom-taking across the country. Add to these politically-motivated clashes and inter-community border disputes that erupt in different parts of the country and you have the picture of Nigeria’s social landscape since the return of democratic rule in the country in 1999. The adverse socio-economic effect of all these is enormous. This paper examines resurgence of banditry and allied forms of violent crime and social disruptions in Nigeria with a view to identifying possible solutions to the problem. The paper adopted anomic theory as its theoretical framework. Data for the paper were sourced through primary and secondary sources. The primary data were sourced through semi structured interviews where 45 respondents were purposively selected from the five states of Benue, Plateau, Katsina, Imo, and Zamfara while the secondary data were sourced from journal articles, periodicals, government reports, newspapers and the internet. Following careful analysis of the collected data, the paper found that lack of synergy, inter-agency rivalries, ineffective intelligence sharing and political interference as well as inadequate military response by the Nigerian state are some of the factors hindering various attempts to deal with the prevalence of insecurity in the country.